Tornado kills 2, injures 1 at ranch in northeast Montana

Tornado kills 2, injures 1 in northeast Montana

HELENA, Mont. — A tornado swept through Montana’s remote and sparsely populated northeastern corner on Monday, killing two people and injuring a third, authorities said.

Don Simonsen of the National Weather Service in Glasgow said the tornado touched down west of Reserve in Sheridan County between 7:15 p.m and 7:45 p.m. before crossing into North Dakota, where it weakened.

There also was at least one tornado reported about 20 miles south of Flaxville in Daniels County, Simonsen said.

Two people about 13 miles west of Reserve were killed when the tornado struck, said Sheridan County Coroner David Fulkerson. A third person was injured and transported to a hospital in Plentywood.

Fulkerson said he did not know the extent of the person’s injuries. He declined to release the names of the three people.

A nurse who answered the phone at Sheridan Memorial Hospital said she could not release any information about the injured patient.

Medicine Lake resident Brandon French said he and five other men were watching the tornado from a hillside when they got a call that a farm to the west had been hit. The men got into a pickup truck and were among the first to arrive.

The house, barn, lean-to and various buildings that had been there just moments before were simply gone, he said.

“There’s no houses, there’s no buildings, there’s nothing left,” French said. “The vehicles were all turned over, there was a pickup plowed into a tractor — it just wrapped the pickup around the tractor. You couldn’t peel it off.”

Northeastern Montana is part of the Hi-Line, with vast stretches of plains and rolling wheat fields just south of the Canadian border. The area where the tornado touched down was “extremely isolated,” Fulkerson said.

Sheridan County’s population has been shrinking, with just over 3,200 people in 2008, according the U.S. Census Bureau. The main source of income for its residents is farming.

The Sheridan County Sheriff’s Office did not have any immediate information on damages caused by the tornado.

In the northwestern corner of North Dakota, a sheriff’s dispatcher in Divide County said they were no reports of storm damage or injuries.

Tornadoes are relatively rare in Montana, although on June 20, a tornado tore apart the state’s largest indoor arena.

The June tornado touched down on top of the Rimrock Auto Arena in Billings, tearing off the roof and some siding and causing extensive damage to the interior. The arena was not in use at the time.

The tornado was the first large tornado to hit Billings in more than a half-century.

City officials said hundreds of households also suffered some damage, either from severe winds or hail that accompanied the twister.

James Kraft, Yellowstone County’s emergency coordinator, has said insurance is expected to cover most or all of the rebuilding costs caused by that tornado.

Associated Press writer Judith Kohler in Denver contributed to this report.